Showing results by narrator "Jim D Johnston" in All Categories

Windsor Castle is one of the most significant residences of the British Monarchy ever conceived, and it has continued to maintain that perfect balance between ancient traditions and modern needs. Built by a conqueror to defend his new domains, it now hosts tourist groups from around the world. The castle has often served as a refuge, with its early battlements offering shelter to royals for centuries, while the castle helped shield others from the attacks of French kings and the Nazis.

God uses a perfect stranger to speak to a suicidal neighbor. Through her availability, He is able to communicate purpose for living. Once a successful businessman loses his team, he learns the value of having the right people in the in the right places to ensure prolonged success. Because a youngster refuses to give in to his pride, he avoids losing his life at a basketball court. As a result of second-place finish in a spelling bee, an elementary school child learns the importance of practice.

Many of us on Earth live in a home with a street address, city, and zip code. But we have another address, which astronomers and astrophysicists refer to as our "cosmic address": Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, the Universe. Consider the vast scales that our cosmic address spans. Understandably, it's hard for our brains to truly imagine it. Our galaxy, The Milky Way, is populated with somewhere between 100-400 billion stars, one of which is our Sun, an average, run-of-the-mill star.

There are few places on Earth that have as much hustle and bustle as New York City, so it's no surprise that people nearby flock to some sort of escape. For many, that escape comes in the form of Brooklyn's Coney Island, which has been one of the area's most popular seaside resorts and amusement park areas since the late 19th century. People may come for different things, such as the festivities held there on July 4th.

Many Americans remember Burns today as the funny comedian who lived (and worked) for an incredibly long time, but Burns' prolific career, which lasted almost the last 75 years of the 20th century, not only demonstrates the enduring influence of vaudeville on radio, television, and cinema but also evidences important ideological developments, particularly related to ethnicity and gender.

You might know Ulysses S. Grant as a Civil War hero and as the 18th president of the United States, but we will introduce you to the heart and soul of the man who brought freedom and equality to a troubled America. Within this book, you'll discover how Grant motivated and inspired a nation to rise above the dark days of slavery and financial ruin and search their hearts for justice for all. You'll battle with Grant and his men at Vicksburg, and be there when General Lee surrenders at Appomattox.

Africa may have given rise to the first humans, and Egypt probably gave rise to the first great civilizations, which continue to fascinate modern societies across the globe nearly 5,000 years later. From the Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Ancient Egyptians produced several wonders of the world, revolutionized architecture and construction, created some of the world's first systems of mathematics and medicine, and established language and art that spread across the known world.

By the end of D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies had managed to successfully land 170,000 men, with over 75,000 on the British and Canadian beaches, 57,000 on the American beaches, and over 24,000 airborne troops. Thanks to Allied deception, the German army had failed to react to prevent the Allies from making the most of their landings. Just one division, the Hitlerjugend, would arrive the following day. Despite a fearsome and bloody day, the majority of the Allied forces had achieved their objectives.

With both an entertainer's eye and a social scientist's rigor, Wayne Parent subjects Louisiana's politics to rational and empirical analysis, seeking and finding coherent reasons for the state's well-known unique history. He resists resorting to vague hand-waving about exoticism, while at the same time he brings to life the juicy stories that illustrate his points. Parent's main theme is that Louisiana's ethnic mix, natural resources, and geography define a culture that in turn produces its unique political theater.

For most of the 20th century, the name Hearst was most closely associated with one of America's most famous (and infamous) newspaper magnates, William Garrison Hearst, whose life was the inspiration for Citizen Kane. But in the 1970s, his granddaughter Patricia made headlines thanks to a series of events that would wind up being one of the most bizarre chapters of the 20th century.

Although revered in history for their civilization and culture, the Greeks were always in a constant state of warfare amongst themselves. With the likes of Athens, Sparta, and Thebes asserting dominance over the Ionian Peninsula, none of the other city-states could amass an army strong enough to challenge their superiority in the area, much less take on all challengers and invade Persia. However, none of these other city-states had a ruler named Alexander.

Imagine a natural or man-made disaster occurring that totally changes the world as you now know it. What would you need to have in place in order to survive such a catastrophe? How can you prepare yourself and your loved ones now for such an event? Survival Book: Everything You Need to Know Before Disaster Strikes takes a serious look at disaster preparedness and reveals 15 tasks that you can work on today that will better prepare you for survival during and following a disaster.

Smugglers groomed him. His head was full of the legends of rebels striking back, exposed to nadaismo and priests joining the revolution. He tried college. Traffickers and illicit markets have always been there. He searched for ways to help the poor and find validation as a respectable man. He tasted success in both worlds. His dream was to become wealthy, but Pablo Escobar was born into La Violencia. Established power held the trauma of violence at their fingertips. He learned that lesson well.

Most commonly known as the antagonists of the pantheon of gods led by Zeus, the Titans embody "unrest" and "transience" for the modern listener, but for reasons less than the obvious. History, after all, is the story of the winners, and the world of the ancient Greeks was a world of a very real, highly querulous pantheon that it behooved ancient writers to glorify in their works.

Although Russia has long been considered part of Europe, it has always had a culture so distinct and a history so different that it is still foreign to Western Europe in many ways. Naturally, this sense of otherness has lent an aura of intrigue and mystique to Russia as people have struggled to understand it. Over the long course of Russian history, perhaps no aspect of the giant country has generated interest quite like Siberia, the easternmost part of Russia that lies in Asia.

After the successful amphibious invasion on D-Day in June 1944, the Allies began racing east toward Germany and liberating France along the way. The Allies had landed along a 50 mile stretch of French coast, and despite suffering 8,000 casualties on D-Day, over 100,000 still began the march across the western portion of the continent. By the end of August 1944, the German Army in France was shattered, with 200,000 killed or wounded and a further 200,000 captured.

The Guillotine. Its very name recalls scenes of horror during the French Revolution, as nobles lost their heads while gangs of people cheered and Madame Defarge knitted. Some of history's most famous people lost their heads at the guillotine, including Marie Antoinette, King Louis XVI of France, and Robespierre, and the apparatus is immediately recognizable across the world, not just for its appearance but for all the stories in which it featured prominently.

This book is an elaborate explanation of MacArthur's life. It is written in an easy-to-follow style that makes you move with the flow of the events of the day. In the book, you will learn almost everything you ever wanted to know about the most decorated army general the US ever had. In particular, you are going to see the factors that influenced MacArthur's life, and the background against which he developed his career.

Andrew Klein's book pulls no punches, defends Hoffa, and destroys the perverse and pervasive influence of the Kennedy clan. This book presents a flawed and tragic charismatic hero in Hoffa, a powerful and bullying classic villain in Robert Kennedy, and a lush backdrop of union fights, personal betrayal, and presidential assassinations.

Liberty was not a privilege afforded to a few. It was to be extended to build a life worth living. Calamitous unrestrained 1920s big business and culture heaped intolerable conditions on the shoulders of unseen millions in the land of the free. Politics before, during, and after the Great Depression tested his character, resolve, and faith in acting for the sake of a common humanity.